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Valentine
The Lost Kingdom of Valentine was once the most powerful nation in all of Erion. Some time before the game begins, the country met a mysterious demise with its only known survivors being the royal twins. Now, it serves as a battleground for the Aesir and Vanir and is the location of the Storming Battlefields stage for all playable characters. Overview The Kingdom of Valentine was famed throughout Erion for its magic and technological might, which not even the native inhabitants of Ragnanival and Titania could hold a candle to. Their technology was such that, in Gwendolyn's Chapter 2 hub, two dwarves mentioning the Cauldron said that it was too advanced for them make work. The fairies were notably frightened of them, as some of the Valentinian's technology was capable of absorbing and taking away the many phozons within their forest, putting their survival at risk. The destruction of Valentine is regarded as one of Erion's greatest mysteries. While most agree that the cause of the disaster was the Cauldron, no one knows what caused the device to act so strangely or what happened to the citizens of the kingdom, as they all seemingly disappeared in the blast without even leaving any corpses. Only Velvet and Ingway know that most of the citizens, in fact, survived at the expense of being turned into Pookas and only Ingway knows why the kingdom suffered its downfall, as he was, in fact, the very cause of it. History The country of Valentine is not considered to be that of the "ancient blood" of Erion, as it was founded by foreigners who came to Erion some centuries before the beginning of the main story. The foreigners arrived on a flying ship and settled in the desert-like field to the west of Ringford and east of Winterhorn Ridge. Very quickly, the nation rose in power and began to conquer nearby lands. In the kingdom's Golden Age, they had control over roughly two-thirds of the continent and strongly desired the other, more weaker nations for themselves. The last King of Valentine was initially heralded by the people of the nation as a very kind-hearted king who had his citizen's best interests at heart, with his daughter, Princess Ariel, also being dearly loved. Still, he was not immune to greed and, at some point, made the attempt to attack and take over Titania. Initially, it looked like Valentine was going to win; however, King Gallon sacrificed his humanity and became the first Beast of Darkova, whose power frightened the Valentinian troops and scattered them. Following the Darkova's slaughter during its following rampage, King Valentine made plans to attack Titania again, but Gallon's son Edmund claimed that he had the power and would use it if he tried to attack. King Valentine subsequently backed off and left Titania alone. At some point during the interlude between wars, King Valentine decided to share his power with the citizens of the nation so that they could be happy and poured his power into the coins being minted, with Commemorative Coins being created to celebrate the spell cast on them. These coins would also ultimately become the only means of removing the Pooka's Curse. Initially the citizens were happy with this turn of events, but King Valentine began to show signs of having lost some of his sanity as a result of trying to make his people happy. Soon enough, Ragnanival attempted to attack Valentine, as King Odin had gained interest in the Cauldron that they had created. During this war, he snuck behind enemy lines, fell in love with the princess, and accidentally impregnated her with his children. Ariel then gave birth to the twins Prince Ingway and Princess Velvet, which surprised both King Valentine and the citizens since no one knew who could have fathered them. For a time, King Valentine locked his children in the royal villa with their mother, but somehow found out that it was the king of Ragnanival who had fathered his grandchildren. In anger, he subsequently called Ariel and her children back to the court with all three of them facing execution. Velvet and Ingway were able to escape this fate; however, in his anger and his insanity, which had only been increased by the realization of his daughter's betrayal, King Valentine strangled Ariel to death and Valentine entered an era where life in the kingdom became miserable because of the king's insane cruelty. The kingdom finally met its end when the weakened and exhausted Ragnanival attempted one last attack. Knowing that his father wouldn't stand a chance against Valentine's forces, Ingway stole his grandfather's ring, Titrel, and commanded the Cauldron to run amok in an act of betrayal. Unfortunately, the Cauldron caused even more destruction than he had intended. In a single night, the entire kingdom was reduced to rubble and the citizens disappeared without a trace, although they were in fact turned into Pookas. During this disaster, King Valentine also passed away after being turned into a Pooka and became a Revenant wandering the Netherworld. Due to the apparent disappearance of the citizens, the only recognized survivors of Valentine's destruction were Velvet and Ingway, who were both able to escape the curse and disaster and came to reside in the Forest of Elrit. The Pooka built their village beneath the ruins with the intention to collect all the coins from their kingdom and regain their human forms while the Aesir and Vanir began fighting above ground for control over the now masterless Cauldron. Technology and Culture As evidenced by comments made by Krois and the Pooka, the Valentinians were proud of the power and influence that they possessed. Based on the design of the Cauldron, the Dwarven Battleship (which was based on Valentinian technology), and the wreckage of an airship that can be found in Mercedes's version of Storming Battlefields, the technology that the Valentinians possessed was on par with what was developed during the real-world Industrial Revolution. They were also the most magically adept kingdom in Erion, even more so than Titania, as they were capable of creating near-irreversible curses like the Pooka's Curse. As most of the Valentinians in-game are presented as Pooka, not much can be said in terms of clothing styles worn by the people. Ingway and Velvet, however, wear clothing that is quite clearly based on Arabian styles and the kingdom was in a desert, suggesting it was similar to old Middle Eastern countries. The ruins of Valentine feature tall towers made of gold/white stone, buildings with vast corridors, and there are even sections of the capital beneath the ground that were quite possibly lived in, suggesting that architecture was strongly valued. Additionally, clay pots can be found around the ruins and there are a good deal of restaurants found in the Pooka Village, so there were focuses on art and cooking within the kingdom as well. Although the Pooka treat characters from other countries like Gwendolyn, Oswald, and Mercedes kindly and quickly accepted Cornelius as one of their own, a manifesto collected in Cornelius's story in Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir written to encourage the Pooka in their search for the Valentinian coins suggests that the majority of Valentinians have a somewhat lower view of the other nations and races. The fact that they have to barter with humans and fairies in order to collect Valentinians coins have them rather bitter, but they are determined to collect all of them in order to return to their human forms and hopefully revive their kingdom, with either Velvet or Ingway taking the throne afterwards. Valentine's conquest of Erion seems to suggest that they were rather militaristic, although not to the same extent as Ragnanival. With the exception of Velvet and Ingway, no Valentinian has ever been seen fighting, although it is known that some of the Pooka hold bows and arrows while Ingway and Velvet use a dagger and a Psypher chain as their weapons respectively. Trivia * According to a comment by George Kamitani in the Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir artbook, the reason that Velvet's design was given Arabian flair (which therefor extends to Ingway) was due to Arabia, in the time of the Vikings, being the number one country in terms of scientific advancements.